Why The Economist hates wealth taxes.
1d 20h ago by lemmy.world/u/BlueTea2 in workreform from www.youtube.com
lol I mean… it’s The Economist
Servile Apologia for Your Wealthy Masters doesn't have quite the same mass appeal as a title as The Economist does, does it?
Because economists aren’t scientists — they’re propagandists for the rich.
They'll get real butthurt at the economics communities. You're right, though.
There are in fact no such thing as economic scientists.
I haven’t listened yet but I’m subscribed, so I will. Just to say that this guy is great. Gary Stephen’s.
Give you one guess
Ngl I was kinda pumped to see Gary take on the economist after I posted its cover here.
Great video as always.
I think if a wealth tax was implemented, it wouldn't change anything. Trump would spend the extra money on new wars and bigger monuments to himself. (Yeah Congress is supposed to control money but that's not how it's working now.)
ah yes. make the government terrible so people hate the government. then use this distrust to dismantle the public sector and privatize everything.
Yeah, that's my point. It's not the income that's as much of a problem as the leadership.
You need leaders willing to spend money on workers instead of owners. Giving Trump more money isn't going to make him spend it on critical social programs.
Shifting more of the tax burden from the working class to the wealthy reduces the ability of the wealthy to influence politics—that’s how you get leaders willing to prioritize workers over owners.
It's not a shift if you have a Republican Congress and President who will not only give it all to their billionaire friends but run up a debt to give more than they took in taxes.
Wealth taxes aren't really about raising more funds for government, they will but its not the goal. The problem is the wealthy have all this excess money and they are driving up the price of everything, houses especially but other assets too and taking wealth away from the rest of society. The goal of wealth taxes is to try and slow that process down, no one yet is talking about reversing it but we really should be because the level of inequality is unsustainable.
The goal is just to remove wealth from those that have too much to restore function to the market, if we don't succeed immense poverty for most people will happen, a trend we are very rapidly accelerating down.
The problem is the wealthy have all this excess money and they are driving up the price of everything,
Transferring $50B from Musk to Kuschner (Ivanka) doesn't change this. Any excess tax money will go directly to Trump's friends and family. He is already increasing the debt to it's highest levels in history to do this. More money won't change it.
To be fair, the longest journey starts with a single step.
I'm pointing out that this is putting the cart before the horse. We need actual leftist politicians or it won't do anything.